If Not Our Heroes
by Delena Aneled Hupp
Summary: A lesson in detachment: There are no heroes, only the people we've left behind us. [Experimental fic]


_**If Not Our Heroes**_

_**By**_ Delena/Aneled Hupp

_**Rating**_ PG

_**Genre**_ Angst/General

_**Legalities**_ HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and copyright Warner Bros. Harry Potter publishing rights copyright J.K. Rowling. All rights reserved. I am in no form or fashion gaining any money from writing this; all I receive is a good laugh.

_**Mission Summary**_ Final horcrux speculating and all that jazz.

_**Mission Statistic Warnings**_ Angst, death, het, blah blah blah

_**Mission Status Report **_One shot, supplemental

_**Pre-Mission Briefing**_ Right now it's not looking like I'll ever finish Like Lovers (Holding On), or at least not before the _Deathly Hallows_ release (especially since I've decided to go back and revamp every existing chapter). So what you're seeing here is an experimental drabble-esque style for me and an impatient desire to throw my ideas up in the air before every thing is finalised in the last book. Enjoy.

_**End briefing- Begin document**_

Desperation. It had clung to the air since the moment they had arrived in Tambov, was noticeable since the death of Cedric Diggory, had been building long before Ginny was ever conceived. The desperation of a generation before her now rams Ginny full-force and she suddenly realises how misguided her latest actions have been. With bitterness she had briefly betrayed her family and comrades, and in the process she had learned a very crucial piece of information: the container (and by proxy the whereabouts) of the final horcrux.

The knowledge almost breaks Ginny's heart but it's a sobering moment, one in which she realises that she really does love her family and those classmates with whom she has been fighting side-by-side... and in spite of her bitterness toward his decisions and years of ignorance regarding her very existence, she still loves Harry Potter very much. So treachery is once more her plan of action as she turns from those masked soldiers she so very briefly knew. Her exit is soundless; perhaps she'll live to see another day.

She returns "home" with added weight on her conscience and wary looks on the faces of people she knows too well greeting her. Trust is hard-earned, she now discovers, yet so easy to lose; those old adages now feel personal. A brief explanation is all she gives, details vague and knowledge withheld. No one else need know the terrible truth; the identity of the last horcrux is just too dangerous in the possession of these do-gooders. Ginny thinks maybe she's tainted enough to finish the task on her own... even now there's a hint of resentment fuelling her goals.

She waits. Weeks pass and yet she waits, though the missing piece is always with her and she only needs to destroy it to end this horrible era and war. She thinks, "Maybe just a little longer... just a little more time," and she passes the piece without incident.

The day comes when waiting is no longer a luxury Ginny can afford; her brother Charlie is dead. Charlie and twenty-odd more soldiers who could have lived had Ginny not gambled with time. So now, at the worst possible moment for such a decision, Ginny takes action.

Harry's emerald eyes are not wide with shock; they screw tightly shut in pain.

"Ginny?" he chokes out as she works her dagger further down his back, "Gi- the hell'r you...?"

He can't see the hurt on her own face as tears squirm free from her squinted eyes... He only hears a hollow whisper, "Harry..."

She spins him around forcefully as she wiggles the blade free to back him against the brick wall. Her lips ghost over his shakily, she raises her right hand over his heart and whispers, "I'm sorry." Her hot tears on his own cheek is the last thing the fallen hero feels before hearing Ginny's cracked voice murmur,

"_Avada Kedavra._"

Ginny thinks in this moment she may just break after all.

_**Mission complete**_

_**Post-mission analysis**_ I was considering writing a little more, up to Voldemort's death. Let me know if it sounds like something you guys may want to read.

_**End Transmission.**_


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